


the void is like a fishhook

by infelphira



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, some descriptions of violent but idk how graphic they are so read w/caution i guess, void eats the father and daughter and spits them out as monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-10-01 02:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10178960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infelphira/pseuds/infelphira
Summary: the void digs itself inside your body and stays (a collection of ways the void affects corvo (mostly) and emily (sometimes))





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i dont even remember writing a few of these. this chapter originally posted in late 2015. low chaos corvo but not entirely merciful.

the loyalists try not to speak about the changes they see in corvo every time he returns home, the servants are berated for mentioning the feathers seen ruffled beneath his clothes.

people begin to avoid eye contact with corvo– some because they see the outsider in his eyes, some because they know that he took a man’s eyes once, for their shininess.

emily preens his feathers affectionately, cleaning the dirt and grime from them after he brings sokolov home. when whispers reach her ears that she should find him strange, she only responds with “but it suits him far better, don’t you agree?”

the mask begins to fit uncomfortably. corvo picks it apart with growing claws to fit better. the silhouette is not lost. his ‘costume’ is hailed at lady boyle’s party, and many guests are put to shame. 

piero is forced to tailor specialized boots for the now elongated talon feet corvo has. his pants are re-tailored as well, for when his legbones changed, the pants were torn to shreds. piero refuses to look at corvo’s hands, scaled and clawed just like his feet.

the lord regent recognizes corvo, knowing that this fate was something they had both been doomed to.

samuel, like emily, takes corvo’s change for what it is, picking mites out of the feathers on corvo’s cheeks after a boat ride home. corvo gives him a molted feather, and samuel hides it under his mattress, to keep it safe. 

corvo is there to see every one of the loyalists take their last breaths. he watches, bobbing head from side to side like a carrion bird surveying a meal. havelock’s body is found with eyes missing. 

when emily rules as empress, her reign is shadowed by whispers of the way birds behave around her. corvo is never seen in her presence. 

a gargoyle becomes a thing of legend, as it frequently goes missing.


	2. making a killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i literally have no recollection of this one. posted june 2nd, 2016. high chaos corvo.

he doesn’t need to wear the mask anymore. so he doesnt. he has grown tired of picking it into more useful shapes with his talons. it no longer fits comfortably around his beak. piero wont speak to him. they are all afraid of him, and rightly so. 

they turned him into a killer, but never expected to get a monster in return.

the void chewed corvo up and spit him out in the shape that his many-times broken heart reflected. all talons and feathers and (– are those teeth inside the beak?) deep eyes, glinting with the reflection that he knows. he has learned everything, and he will pull the rug out from under you. 

after the first mission, he stopped caring for stealth when he learned that he still knew every way to make a man stop breathing. when he was out of bolts, he turned to sword. when sword slicing through muscle and tendon down to bone did not satisfy him, he turned to more brutal means. 

when your hands and feet are instead equipped with talons like knives, and your beak itself is the perfect tool– somehow the right size and shape for taking out eyes– man-made things just seem so clunky. 

no one ever stopped to question if it were the escaped corvo attano committing these atrocities. the creature they had seen was no man.

the rat plague brought sweeping with it a vicious carrion bird to feed the swarms. 

the whale god’s mark burns fiercely on his hand. he ignores it. 

emily was the only one who wasn’t afraid of him. the loyalists– men who thought themselves hardened from battled– flinched as they watched her fearlessly reach up and ruffle her hands through cheek feathers. a smile on her face like she’s never seen her mother die as the creature nuzzled against her. 

they would hear her harmonize with the sounds it made. a conversation they were no longer allowed to know. 

many times they thought to, perhaps, abandon this scheme. they had expected a man. they received a storm god in the form of feathers and fury who spat sounds that reminded them of things best left forgotten. 

yet, pride spurred them. and pride would end them.


	3. the end of things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want corvo and emily to have a good day. originally posted january 2017. corvo from ch 1. low chaos ghost emily.

the void hooked its talons in corvo fifteen years ago and he had an allergic reaction. it re-shaped a broken man by picking up his pieces and putting them back together as it saw fit. it shaped him into a weapon and a tool.

and it had taken him years to recover. shedding feathers and snapping his own bones until he was man shaped again, until he could appear in the court again, until he was proper to be seen by delicate nobles and prying eyes. 

when the stone peeled away (much worse than molting feathers; feeling like days and years had gone by in seconds, stealing breath and energy) and he saw the void behind emily’s eyes, he was relieved that it had not done so to her.

emily had not been averse to the void like he had been. she took to it like a bird to the sky. it lived with her as easily as her own breath and the shadows that followed her ducked out of sight. hew knew they were there. 

the edges of her shape blend into her surroundings; she feels and sees into the heart of everything. her teeth seemed too sharp; too long when caught in the right light. the servants chattered in hushed tones about her nails; how they grew sharp overnight. 

the void doesnt bite at her, instead, she preys upon it. her body melts into the veil and the people can swear, for a moment, that there truly were things lurking where the empress had been standing only a moment ago. but she was powerful, kind, and unnervingly all-seeing, so no one ever said this within earshot. 

she never slit a man’s throat, but the people know their ruler is dangerous. powerful and awful people don’t just change overnight. her touch was poison– or, perhaps– antidote to the true evil in the hearts of men. 

she protects herself. she will not be betrayed again. she is the rightful ruler of the empire. 

corvo is able to sleep again, at last. markless, without itching at feathers under his skin.

things are finally, truly happy.


End file.
